I read the hugely disappointing story at BikePortland about the Arizona legislative committee rejecting the Idaho-style stop sign law. Right now a similar bill is in committee in Salem to bring Idaho-style stops to Oregon. For those that haven’t yet heard, the Idaho law allows cyclists on bicycles to treat stop signs as yield signs. One of the complaints from an Arizona legislator was he found it “muddies the situation”.

I can only conceive the “mud” surrounds the meaning of a yield sign. Admittedly, the most likely place to see one is the side of freeway entrance ramps where they are driven right past at full speed with barely a thought given to them. I don’t recall the yield sign being talked about very much in my drivers ed. In an effort to remove all potential confusion and misunderstanding, I’ve created a flowchart for cyclists to use when following the Idaho-stop law. Hopefully this will clear up the situation. The law has been enforce in Idaho for over 20 years and so far as anyone can tell has not hurt, killed, or muddied anyone there.

Feel free to print a copy and mail it to your legislator with a note explaining why you feel this is such reasonable and long over-due law.

Or if, like the Arizona legislators, you find it all so confusing, laminate a copy to affix to your handlebars. I’m sure with a little practice you’ll have it down in no time.